Reducing carrier escape in the InAs/GaAs quantum dot intermediate band solar cell

Antolín Fernández, Elisa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5220-2849, Martí Vega, Antonio ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8841-7091, Farmer, C.D., García-Linares Fontes, Pablo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2369-3017, Hernández Martín, Estela, Sanchez, A.M., Ben, T., Molina Rubio, Sergio Ignacio, Stanley, Colin and Luque López, Antonio ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8357-6413 (2010). Reducing carrier escape in the InAs/GaAs quantum dot intermediate band solar cell. "Journal of Applied Physics", v. 108 (n. 6); ISSN 0021-8979. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3468520.

Description

Title: Reducing carrier escape in the InAs/GaAs quantum dot intermediate band solar cell
Author/s:
Item Type: Article
Título de Revista/Publicación: Journal of Applied Physics
Date: January 2010
ISSN: 0021-8979
Volume: 108
Subjects:
Faculty: E.T.S.I. Telecomunicación (UPM)
Department: Electrónica Física
Creative Commons Licenses: Recognition - No derivative works - Non commercial

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Abstract

Intermediate band solar cells (IBSCs) fabricated to date from In(Ga)As/GaAs quantum dot arrays (QD-IBSC) exhibit a quantum efficiency (QE) that extends to below bandgap energies. However, the production of sub-bandgap photocurrent relies often on the thermal and/or tunneling escape of carriers from the QDs, which is incompatible with preservation of the output voltage. In this work, we test the effectiveness of introducing a thick GaAs spacer in addition to an InAlGaAs strain relief layer (SRL) over the QDs to reduce carrier escape. From an analysis of the QE at different temperatures, it is concluded that escape via tunneling can be completely blocked under short-circuit conditions, and that carriers confined in QDs with an InAlGaAs SRL exhibit a thermal escape activation energy over 100 meV larger than in the case of InAs QDs capped only with GaAs.

Funding Projects

Type
Code
Acronym
Leader
Title
FP7
211640
IBPOWER
Unspecified
Intermediate Band Materials and Solar Cells for Photovoltaics with High Efficiency and Reduced Cost

More information

Item ID: 7327
DC Identifier: https://oa.upm.es/7327/
OAI Identifier: oai:oa.upm.es:7327
DOI: 10.1063/1.3468520
Official URL: http://jap.aip.org/resource/1/japiau/v108/i6/p0645...
Deposited by: Memoria Investigacion
Deposited on: 07 Jun 2011 11:01
Last Modified: 03 Nov 2014 13:34
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